Apple Music Apple Music not syncing properly across 3 devices

[wayne905]

I signed up for Apple Music today. I previously had Apple Music last summer without any issue. I got a new car last week with Apple Car play, so I wanted to get Apple Music to use in teh car, and to download all the music to my phone so I could play in the car and not have to stream and use data.

Today, when I signed up, I was cleaning up some old music from my computer and I saw that when I deleted a song on one device, it deleted across all devices...which it should...so far so good! However when I was done cleaning up some very old music that I don't care to listen to any more, I noticed there is a big difference in # of songs listed on each device.

My iPhone shows 735 songs. My iMac shows 726songs (4.58GB) and my MacBook Air shows 979 songs (6.45GB). This song count and size should be consistent across all 3 devices, but it isn't.

On my iMac when I have AM Sync turned on, it shows 726 songs (4.59GB) and if I turn sync off it shows 226 songs (1.75GB)
On my MB Air, when I have AM Sync turned on, it shows 979 songs (6.45GB) and if I turn sync off it shows 592 songs (4.56GB).

I can't figure this one out. I even tried calling Apple support (Text only chat was available - no voice calling). They were unable to assist me, and left me on my own to figure it out.

I even tried asking if there is a way to wipe the Music app clean of all songs, and redownload/sync on each device in the hopes when it syncs, it sets the 3 devices to be identical song count...but again they couldn't assist.

Any assistance from you folks on Macrumors would be very greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[swandy]

Try going to music.apple.com, signing into your Apple ID and see if some of the missing songs/albums are there.

 

[wayne905]

Try going to music.apple.com, signing into your Apple ID and see if some of the missing songs/albums are there.

Thanks. This is so weird. There are some songs or albums that I delete on my iPhone and it deletes on music.apple.com when I refresh the page...however on my 2 other devices (MacBook Air and iMac) the songs or albums are still on there. When I delete a song it says it will remove it from ALL devices, but it doesn't.

I just got off the phone with apple support, and the rep spoke to her supervisor and the supervisor said that it doesn't delete across all devices in case I want different songs on each of my devices. That doesn't make sense. Previously when I had Apple Music last summer, if I deleted a song off of one device it deleted it off of all my devices.

I even tested a song that I downloaded using Apple Music service, and when I removed the song from teh library from one device, it deleted it off of all devices. However it looks like maybe songs that I purchased from iTunes (back before Apple Music was even in existence) it might not delete across all, and those appear to be ones I have to delete off each of my 3 devices....or at least this is what the situation looks like at the moment. I just don't recall having to do that previously when I had Apple Music last year. So in theory, and like it is right now, I have different number of songs across all 3 of my devices. Having to delete songs off 3 devices seems counter productive, and doesn't make sense with the "sync my library" - not to mention Music app says it will delete across all devices.

 

[swandy]

That is strange because I know when I delete a song/album, I get the message about it being deleted from all my devices using iCloud Music Library. (Sorry not sure which of the songs in my library are from purchases in the iTunes Store.)

 

[swandy]

There is another thread here and at least three on the official Apple Support Forums discussing syncing issues between macOS and iOS devices. One guy posted that his problems started with Monterey 12.1. That sounds about right for me also time wise.
It is suggested too send feedback to apple. According to a Senior Tech I spoke to about another issue, they actually have people reading the feedback filed.

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

 

[wayne905]

There is another thread here and at least three on the official Apple Support Forums discussing syncing issues between macOS and iOS devices. One guy posted that his problems started with Monterey 12.1. That sounds about right for me also time wise.
It is suggested too send feedback to apple. According to a Senior Tech I spoke to about another issue, they actually have people reading the feedback filed.

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

thanks for your response. I have reported the bug. This issue is quite annoying to have to check all devices when a song is added/deleted.

 

[swandy]

thanks for your response. I have reported the bug. This issue is quite annoying to have to check all devices when a song is added/deleted.

What's amazing to me is - at least in my case - it will work properly one day and let me change the data/genre/album artist (like it did last night with two albums I added from AM) and then not work the next day.

 

[wayne905]

What's amazing to me is - at least in my case - it will work properly one day and let me change the data/genre/album artist (like it did last night with two albums I added from AM) and then not work the next day.

That's exactly it. Same with me. One day if I delete a song or album on my iMac it doesn't sync that same change to my MacBook Air or iPhone. Then other days it does work, and then my iPhone doesn't sync with changes. It's completely hit and miss. For $100/yr this should work flawlessly.